Summary:In the period between the two world wars, a large number of
the citizens of Belgrade lived in rented apartments. Rental
apartments for the poor tenants were built and leased in all
parts of the town. In the central parts of town, the poor rented
apartments in unhygienic and dilapidated apartment buildings remaining from the 19th century and units located in courtyards of detached houses or in smaller enclaves. In the
suburbs and near – suburbs, they rented substandard
apartments in single story dwellings in deep and narrow
courtyards that housed several kitchen-room type units.
Being a rentier was an occupation that was profitable and
provided social status and power. Big rentiers were the owners
of luxurious apartments available to a small circle of better off
citizens, but they also owned dilapidated buildings and
apartments that they leased to the poor citizens of Belgrade.
Not so rich rentiers mostly had the latter tenants. There was
also a number of “landladies” and “landlords” who were not
rentiers by occupation, but who increased their modest profits
by leasing a small apartment in the courtyard, basement or
shed. One form of poor people's “rentier business” was
subleasing a part of the apartment, most often a room.
The tenants of small and substandard, but expensive
apartments and rooms, were poor families and singles, junior
civil servants, pensioners, craftsmen, workers and many
others. There were also pre-war citizens of Belgrade, those
who were looking for employment in the capital city of the
newly formed Kingdom, migrant workers, Russian refugees
and foreigners, together with a large number of half - literate,
unqualified and poor village population newly arrived to
Belgrade.
The apartments were small in size and had insufficient cubic
capacity of air per room. They were overcrowded, often
consisting of a kitchen and a room, or one room. They were
damp, badly lit and without sunlight, cold and with no fresh
air, negatively affecting the tenants health. Even today, these
courtyard buildings that housed the poorbetween the two
world wars can be found in the streets of Dorćol, Savamala,
Čubura, Voždovac, Zvezdara, Lekino Brdo or Bulbulder.